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On November 22, Build With Strength Director, Building Innovations, Justin McCain presented Roadmap to Concrete Decarbonization and Building Resilience to approximately 200 principals of the top architecture firms from around the country at the ARC-US 24 convention held in San Antonio, TX. A strong emphasis was placed on early collaboration with contractors and ready mix producers to maximize the available means, methods and materials in the market to lower embodied carbon. McCain (seen here, addressing attendees) said the discussion "went beyond just calculating embodied carbon in EPD’s by examining the whole building life cycle assessment, highlighting concrete’s long-term value from its superior building envelope and high thermal mass."
"When we study the operations stage of the building life cycle (where ~90% of emissions occur), the benefits of a concrete envelope get even stronger through both decreased energy consumption and lower total C02e emissions as compared to both wood and steel structures," McCain said. "The sustainability-resilience relationship was also addressed and concrete’s ability to withstand up to 250 mph wind loads while boasting a 4-hour fire rating cannot be beat. This resilience can be quantified with ~50% reductions to builders’ risk and ~40% in commercial property insurance as compared to timber frame construction."
There is no silver bullet when it comes to sustainability and low carbon concrete or any other material, he added. It requires a surgical approach, buy in and hard work upfront from the entire project team, including owners, architects, structural engineers, contractors and ready mixed concrete producers. By keeping the big picture in mind and evaluating the entire building life cycle, concrete wins!
For more information, contact Justin McCain at jmccain@nrmca.org.
National Ready Mixed Concrete Association